The Rede of the Wicca
For many people the Wiccan Rede consists of eight words: “An it harm none, do what ye will.” Those words were first publicly uttered by Doreen Valiente back in October of 1964 at a dinner hosted by the Witchcraft Research Association. The phrase certainly goes back at least a little bit further than 1964, other Witches were using the Rede before that fateful October, but that dinner forty-nine years ago marks their first public utterance. (The word “Rede” itself means counsel or advice, which is exactly what the Wiccan Rede provides.)
A statement very similar to the Rede appears in Gerald Gardner’s The Meaning of Witchcraft (published in 1959). In Meaning Gardner wrote: “Do what you like as long as you harm no one,” an idea he attributed to the legendary Good King Pausol. (1) If you’ve never heard of the “Good King Pausol” you aren’t alone. Pausole (Gardner forget the “e” in his book) wasn’t a legendary King at all, but the literary creation of the French writer Pierre Louÿs. Pausole first shows up in print back in 1901, with the English edition following 24 years later. If you look at the titles of Louÿs’s books and poems (The Flute of Pan, Aphrodite: Ancient Manners) it’s not surprising that Gardner was familiar with his work. In The Adventures of King Pausole the “legendary King” advises people that they should: “Do no wrong or harm to thy neighbor, and observing this, do as thou please.”
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/panmankey/2013/10/redeofthewicca/
